Brian Sloss

The river has been fishing well lately and should continue to get better well into the fall. All the usual suspects have been working (stonelies, princes, Don's crawdad marabou jigs all fished deep). Took a couple of guide trips fairly recently and everyone did well. It is the time of year where I expect my guide schedule to get busier, particularly after Labor Day, so expect more reports in the coming weeks. Also, remember that we should start seeing Hexes flying around in the next couple of weeks, which means Hex nymphs should start producing soon, with an outside possibility of some dry fly action in the evenings if the hatch on a particular evening is thick enough. Kind of hit and miss on the dries, but a chance.

There are more pics from the rest of the float on the Mo Web site as well, just did not feel like linking them all, but they show up if you do a google search. Nixon had his own ride but the rest rode back in one of our buses. KSPR did a segment last night at 10 and I think they are doing another tonight.

here is a link to pics of the float http://www.areawidenews.com/gallery/11-point-float-trip

If fishing is the primary focus, Greer to Whitten may be a bit long as it is 12 miles. Fine for a float, but a long way to fish hard. If you want to keep fish or not also plays a role. Greer to Turner has trophy regs and keeping fish is not as viable. Turner to Whitten or Whitten to Riverton are managed more for harvest. Spinning rods need to have marabou jigs in a number of colors including white. Deep diving crank baits that are smaller and heavier rooster tail type spinners. Anything below Turner they can use baits (power bait, minnows, corn etc) and soft plastics such as beetle spins and tube baits. As for flies, keep them deep. Big stone flies, Don's Crawdads, prince nymphs and smaller marabou jigs. We sell flies at our shop in Alton where we rent canoes for the river. www.11ointcanoe.com. Whatever you decide to do, have a great time. We are fishing well here.

Yesterday, following a big storm Sunday night that blew down a lot of trees, Gov. Nixon did his annual float. We were lucky enough to outfit him on the Eleven Point. Watch ABC news out of Springfield or look in your local paper to find an article. He did a little fly fishing and caught a few trout as well. The intent of the trip was to promote tourism in the Ozarks and we were happy to have him here.

Glad you made it through the night ok, that was some crazy wind we had.

Let me know for sure.

Looks like a great trip, Cricket! Good work with guiding, fishing, and the camera. Always a pleasure to have you down. Brian

Of course you can.

Got plenty to choose from and I;ll be there by 7:30.

I agree about the chiggers and and PI, but the other stuff is debatable. The boat traffic on Sunday in the Greer to Turner section would not be that bad. I would have a problem picking the boat up on the North side of the river at Turner as we outfit from the south side, so you would have to cross the river. We could drop the canoe off Sunday morning so it does not have to be left there all day Sat and Sat night. If you would be willing to set a pick up time to meet at Turner with the canoe so it isn't left unattended at such a remote location and then cross the river to your car on the north side, you could do it. That said, the trail will be more pleasant in the fall and winter. Because there is a camp host at Greer and it costs $10/site, it is the most family friendly place to camp on the river.

Yet another vote for de-barbing here. It is simply easier to release a fish without the barbs. It minimizes the need to handle the fish and that is a good thing unless it is to be table fare.

You are going through the week, so you should only see a few boats a day, with Sunday being the day you see the most. Stinking Pond gravel bar is fine. There are some changes to the river due to the floods but nothing that will change your experience and too many to list. The river is in great shape and it is up for this time of year. It is fishing very well.

Went out guiding twice last week and the fishing was good. On both days the fish were hitting stoneflies, red prince nymphs, bloody Marys and 1/16 oz marabou jigs fished deep. The first day we had an 18 and 19 inch trout with good numbers of fish caught. The second day we had even better numbers, but no fish over 18, though we did have a few in the 16-17 inch range. The fishing is quite good now.

With water still hanging around 900 cfs I wouldn't go any lighter than 4x and some knowledgeable fishermen who were out Monday and Tuesday reported that the bite didn't slow at all when they switched to 3x. As Nortrad stated plan on throwing some weight on with whatever you decide to fish - we are high and the fish are hanging low. Ryan

Stop by the canoe rental sometime (hwy 19 an 160) and I'll get you some maps and go over the best areas with you.

You will be fine this year on that trip.

Thomasville has beenm cut out and there won't be boats up there.

Typo, I did mean smallmouth.

By the way, the places I listed are mainly trout accesses with a chance at smallmouth, But Thomasville has great trout on hwy 99 and Cane Bluff has good smallmouth water as well off hwy 19 between Alton and Greer. Hwy 142 has good smallmouth as well. Getting a canoe, kayak or other boat will get you to a lot of the best water though.

Very nicely done Mr Wise

Turner Mill, Whitten, Riverton to name a few. Turner mill and Whitten are off AA highway and riverton is on hwy 160. Off the gravel road to the Whitten access is the Bliss walk in access about a mile down the road to the left, right before you get to Whitten. You could also go to Boze Mill Spring to hit the river there.

Wish this happened in the winter, if it has to happen, so I could come over and help. Sounds fun.

You probably won't have enough water at Thomasville in August, but if you do and you want smallies, Thomasville to Greer would be good at 18 miles. Cane Bluff to Turner would be 12 miles with both smallmouth and trophy trout water. You could go Cane Bluff to Whitten at 20 miles and get smallmouth, Blue ribbon trout and white ribbon trout. You could do Whitten to 142 which has smallies and white ribbon trout and is about 17 miles. The speed of the river will be somewhat similar to Jacks fork, but bigger below Greer spring than Jack's Fork. Feel free to call me if you need a canoe @ 417-778-6497. The blue ribbon trout area will probably fish best at that time, but will not give you much smallmouth action in that stretch. With a handle like yours, I figured you would want to trout fish. Smallmouth are found in all stretches, but are more populated in some stretches (upstream of Greer and downstream of Riverton, though there are good numbers between Whitten and Riverton).

State record hybrid, check (maybe). Nice job Brian. I personally covet a state record in the creek chub department. Get the scales at the post office ready, cause I am gunning for it.